


A New Look at History

by DesertVixen



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Perceptions of TOS era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 10:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14283054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: A Starfleet History professor tries a new approach...





	A New Look at History

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lah_mrh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lah_mrh/gifts).



Commander Athena Palamas surveyed the room full of eager young cadets, and idly wondered how many of them had actually done the required reading. She had found that even the most dedicated scholars tended to put her class materials toward the end of their list. After all, Starfleet History (Command Track) simply didn’t have the same ring as Starship Tactics, and she was sure that titles like _A Comprehensive Fleet History_ and _The Founders of the Federation: A Collection of Primary Source Documents_ were enough to put students to sleep. Palamas was certainly tired of reading the same papers over and over.

So she had developed a new syllabus, one that she hoped would liven things up. The first two weeks of reading were hard to change, simply to make sure everyone had the bare basics of the timeline and founding for both Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets down. 

Now, she thought, they could have some fun. There was so much being written about the twenty-third century right now, and Palamas had put together a wide-ranging collection of books supplemented with more academic articles. But she also needed the students to engage with the reading material and help make her concept a success. 

“This week’s reading was _Logical Fascination: A History of Vulcan and Human Partnerships_ ,” Palamas said after the bell had rung. “What were your impressions?”

There was a slightly uncomfortable silence, no one wanting to be the first victim. Palamas had enjoyed the book herself – a slightly shallow, highly personalized look at some of the most famous Vulcan and human pairings, including Sarek and Amanda Grayson, and of course, Spock and James T. Kirk. Lighter chapters were balanced by more general ones full of statistics and facts, and Palamas felt like it would help drag some of the more history-averse cadets into participating.

Or not, and she was going to have to start calling on people.

She was just about to call one of the unlucky cadets in the front row when a human male – Paul Rice, according to her seating chart – raised a hand. “It actually seems pretty illogical,” he said confidently.  
“Captain Spock was certainly not the first Vulcan to serve in Starfleet, so the whole lack of knowledge about _pon farr_ and _katras_ seemed like a massive oversight. Wouldn’t it have been more logical for the Vulcans to simply inform Starfleet of the biological basics?”

Several heads turned towards the knot of Vulcan students sitting together, and Palamas resisted the urge to grin. It looked as if class might be getting a little more interesting. T’Para, the only female Vulcan cadet, turned towards Rice.

“It was not a matter of logic, but of privacy, which Vulcans have historically guarded,” she said coolly. “It was also not certain that then-Commander Spock would experience _pon farr_. For other Vulcans in Starfleet, it was easier to handle on board an all-Vulcan ship or to travel with one’s bonded mate.”

“The _katra_ issue is a little more difficult to explain away,” argued a human female cadet, Alex Fontaine. “Surely the desire to preserve one’s _katra_ is stronger than the desire to not be embarrassed. Also, as the situation with Captain Spock demonstrated, there might not be time to explain the _katra_. Not only did he run the risk of his _katra_ being lost, it would have been rather unfortunate for Dr. McCoy.”

T’Para nodded slowly. “I cannot answer that question,” she stated. “However, I would point out that Spock was the first successful Vulcan-human hybrid, so much of his life could be compared to an experiment.”

“Anyway,” a brash young cadet named William Riker contributed, “It was actually to everyone’s advantage that Captain Spock maintained such secrecy about these issues. If Admiral Kirk and the others had not stolen the USS Enterprise to return to Genesis, they might not have been in the position to assist Earth and the Federation during the Whale Probe crisis. In fact, it is very likely that the Enterprise crew would have been in Starfleet Headquarters itself. In fact, if it had not been for those facts being concealed, we might not even be sitting here in this class.”

Palamas let herself smile then, although she knew several people would not have minded getting out of her class by whatever means necessary. Cadet Riker had hit on one of the points she often tried to drive home to her classes, that even seemingly unrelated events could have a ripple effect on the rest of history.

“Very good, Cadet Riker. Do you have any other observations to share with the class?”

“I found the author’s concept of balance to be an important one. Her treatment of the relationship between Captain Kirk and Commander Spock was interesting. I think that a bridge crew requires a certain amount of balance for it to be successful. After all, if Kirk and Spock had shared similar personalities, they would have made vastly different decisions.”

“Are you suggesting that every ship needs its Vulcan?” Terev, the lone Andorian in the class, suggested loudly, amid a few laughs.

“Perhaps not a Vulcan,” Riker argued, “but every bridge crew does need to balance brave impulse with reason. There’s a time and place for both. I think that Kirk and Spock’s relationship demonstrates that quite well. Commander Spock chose to identify more a Vulcan than human, but he also understood the value of a hunch. Or a chess game,” he added with a laugh. Someone had done more than skim the reading, Palamas thought to herself.

“The part I had trouble with,” chimed in Rice, “was some of the situations the Enterprise ran into. I mean, the Excalbian encounter with “Abraham Lincoln” and “Surak”. Or the Guardian of Forever. Or the so-called mirror universe. Or the encounter with “Apollo”. It just seems like the Enterprise crew did nothing except run into trouble.”

Palamas was impressed. Someone had clearly done some reading, although she wondered if Rice had read in-depth about the last encounter he had mentioned. “Are you implying that any of those events didn’t happen, Cadet Rice?”

“I don’t deny that the crew thought they happened, but it seems like some of the accounts might have been embellished or based on inaccurate data.” Rice seemed a little uncomfortable, but he did not back down.

“The logs of the original USS Enterprise were released in their entirety twenty-five years ago,” T’Para commented. “They demonstrate that the Enterprise did have its share of routine missions, such as survey mapping and other exploratory tasks.”

“But you have to admit,” Riker said with a grin, “it’s way more fun reading about time travel and encounters with Greek gods than reading mapping logs and scientific readouts.”

“I’m not saying they didn’t make exciting reading, Will,” Rice shot back. “I’m just saying I don’t think Starfleet officers today would be so easily fooled by what might have been clever illusions or beings with advanced scientific skills.”

“I guess we will see when we get out there,” Riker said easily. 

The discussion moved on to the diplomatic realm, and Palamas was encouraged to see that most of the class had at least borrowed someone else’s notes. Maybe next week more of them would actually do the reading, _The Talos Dilemma_.

A history professor could hope, at least.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I tried a few concepts, but this one seemed like it worked the best. I'm a history major, so it was fun to imagine.
> 
> Palamas, of course, is a shoutout to the original script for Who Mourns for Adonais, in which Lt. Palomas was supposed to find out she was pregnant. (I'd forgotten the tie-in to New Frontier, but oh well.) The chess game refers to Court Martial, and of course the references to Amok Time and ST II-IV.
> 
> Paul Rice, of course, does get taken in by an illusion and advanced capabilities on the planet Minos in the TNG episode Arsenal of Freedom, and he was classmates with Riker at the Academy.


End file.
